1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to telecommunication systems and more particularly to a method and system for preserving telephone numbers by eliminating the need for assigning a unique telephone number for each and every telephone line in service.
2. Background of the Invention
The expansion of telecommunications services and equipment such as telephones, fax machines, pagers, cellular telephones, and modems, has resulted in a rapid growth in the demand for telephone numbers. In addition, the Internet has created a further demand for an even greater number of telephone numbers.
In the United States alone, new telephone numbers are increasing at a rate of about 12% per year, while the population is growing at a rate of only about 4%. This phenomenon is due in part to many subscribers often having multiple telephone numbers. For example, one person could well have as many as six telephone numbers: a first number for a home telephone, a second number for a home fax machine, a third number for an office telephone, a fourth number for an office fax machine, a fifth number for a cellular telephone, and a sixth number for a pager. A seventh number might be necessary if he or she chooses to have dedicated Internet access. In addition to the above-described personal demand for telephone numbers, certain commercial entities, such as telemarketers, are also adding more telephone numbers for their businesses.
Under the current infrastructure of United States telecommunication systems, a telephone number is required for every telephone line in service. A person with, e.g., six telephone lines would therefore have six telephone numbers. A telemarketing company with 50 telephone lines may have 50 telephone numbers. The assignment of a specific telephone number to a specific telephone line is necessary because the telephone number serves as an xe2x80x9caddressxe2x80x9d for the corresponding telephone line. The telephone number also identifies the caller as the person to whom the telephone company would charge the associated telecommunication services.
The ten-digit telephone number system of the United States contains three main components: the first three digits are the xe2x80x9carea code,xe2x80x9d the next three digits are the xe2x80x9cexchange code,xe2x80x9d and the remaining four digits specify a particular telephone line. The area code identifies the general geographical areas of the United States. For example, all telephone lines with the xe2x80x9c202xe2x80x9d area code are located physically in Washington, D.C. Similarly, all telephone numbers with the xe2x80x9c404xe2x80x9d area code are physically located in the Atlanta area of Georgia. Within each area code, there are multiple exchange codes. For example, within the geographical boundaries served by the xe2x80x9c404xe2x80x9d area code, there are many active exchange codes including, e.g., xe2x80x9c659,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9c249,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9c628,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9c444,xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c680.xe2x80x9d Also within each area code, there is one or more exchange codes that have been reserved from being issued to subscribers. In the xe2x80x9c404xe2x80x9d area code region, for example, reserved exchange code xe2x80x9c203xe2x80x9d is not available for assignment of telephone numbers. If this reserved exchange code were to be made available for telephone number assignment, then up to 10,000 additional telephone numbers would be available for telephone line subscribers located within the xe2x80x9c404xe2x80x9d area code region. These telephone numbers would range sequentially from xe2x80x9c404-203-0000xe2x80x9d to xe2x80x9c404-203-9999.xe2x80x9d
The conventional solution to satisfy the demand for even more telephone numbers (as thousands of telephone lines are being put to service every day) is to add new area codes. Each new area code adds 1,000 additional exchange codes. As explained above, each additional exchange code adds 10,000 telephone numbers. As a result, the addition of one new area code provides 10,000,000 additional telephone numbers. This conventional solution, however, has many disadvantages. For example, the introduction of multiple area codes in a single city requires complex operation overhead, and could result in consumer confusion, as well as result in additional expenses to the telephone company. Furthermore, we could eventually run out of the three-digit area codes which would then create the need for creating four-digit or larger area codes.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an advanced intelligent network structure. Advanced intelligent network structures are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,701,301, which is hereby incorporated by reference. In the example shown in this schematic diagram, Subscriber A has a regular telephone line 10 that is capable of two-way communications, namely, initiating and receiving communications. Regular telephone line 10 has been assigned a unique telephone number, e.g., xe2x80x9c404-777-1000.xe2x80x9d Subscriber B of regular telephone line 20 has been issued a different unique telephone number, e.g., xe2x80x9c404-888-2000.xe2x80x9d These subscriber data, along with other subscriber data such as their billing rates and mailing addresses, are contained in customer record database 12. Customer record database 12 can easily update service management system (SMS) 13 to enable changes in service control point (SCP) 14a""s data. In a preferred embodiment, telephone line 10 also has either an off-hook immediate or an off-hook delay trigger assigned to it.
When Subscriber A dials xe2x80x9c404-888-2000xe2x80x9d using a telecommunication device 1 such as a telephone that is connected to regular telephone line 10, a service switching point (SSP) 11 is triggered via, e.g., an off-hook immediate trigger, to send query 17 to a service control point 14a via a signaling transfer point (STP) 15 of the SS7 signaling system provided with the advanced intelligent network. Query 17 contains information such as Subscriber A""s unique telephone number xe2x80x9c404-777-1000xe2x80x9d (calling party ID number) and the recipient""s unique telephone number xe2x80x9c404-888-2000xe2x80x9d (dialed number) as well as the originating point code of service switching point 11, e.g., xe2x80x9c252-112-001.xe2x80x9d In essence, query 17 is a question from service switching point 11 asking service control point 14a how to process the telephone call. When service control point 14a receives query 17, it consults database (DB) 14b that in turns recognizes xe2x80x9c404-777-1000.xe2x80x9d As a result, service control point 14a responds to query 17 with instruction 18 directing service switching point 11 to route the call to Subscriber B. Normal processing of the call from Subscriber A to Subscriber B would require that Subscriber A""s telephone number be used for billing purposes and be recorded at SSP 11, along with Subscriber B""s telephone number as the destination address. In addition, either subscriber may establish communication with Internet service provider (ISP) 16 or Internet service provider 26 by dialing xe2x80x9c404-123-4567xe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9c404-765-4321,xe2x80x9d the unique telephone numbers of Internet service provider 16 and Internet service provider 26, respectively.
In summary, routing a call requires a unique destination address and an originating billing information to properly complete the call.
The present invention recognizes that not all telephones lines are being used to both initiate and terminate communications. For example, an increasing number of subscribers use additional telephone lines for outbound-only purposes such as access to the Internet. Many corporations use telephone lines exclusively for making outbound-only calls, e.g., telemarketing calls. As these telephone lines do not receive calls, they do not require unique telephone numbers to serve as addresses. As long as a method exists for the telephone company to identify the calling party for billing purposes, several outbound-only telephone lines could be assigned the same telephone number within a single area code.
The telecommunication system of the present invention allows a single telephone number to be used repeatedly for multiple outbound-only telephone lines located within a common area code region. For example, in an area code region with 50 service switching points, a single global telephone number from the group of xe2x80x9c404-203-XXXX,xe2x80x9d where XXXX ranges from xe2x80x9c0000xe2x80x9d to xe2x80x9c9999,xe2x80x9d can be used 50 times, i.e., each service switching point could use the same global telephone number to serve a single outbound-only telephone line. In this example of 50 service switching points, the present invention allows for up to 500,000 outbound-only telephone lines (10,000 global telephone numbers within each service switching point times 50 service switching points) within that area code. In a preferred embodiment where an outbound-only telephone line subscriber has a regular telephone line, the unique telephone number of the regular telephone line can be used for billing purposes of the outbound-only telephone line.
The present invention also allows multiple outbound-only telephone lines to be billed against a single unique telephone number. For example, Company A served by a first service switching point has a regular telephone line with unique telephone number xe2x80x9c404-249-7000.xe2x80x9d Company A might also have three outbound-only telephone lines with global telephone numbers of xe2x80x9c404-203-7001,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9c404-203-7002,xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c404-203-7003.xe2x80x9d Calls from all three outbound-only telephone lines can be billed against unique telephone number xe2x80x9c404-203-7001, xe2x80x9d As explained above, global telephone numbers xe2x80x9c404-203-7001,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9c404-203-7002,xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c404-203-7003xe2x80x9d can also be reassigned to other outbound-only telephone lines connected to a service switching point other than the first service switching point. Similarly, any one of the 10,000 global telephone numbers used by the first service switching point can be reused by any one outbound-only telephone line served by any other service switching points.
In a preferred embodiment, all calls from a given outbound-only telephone line can be billed against its subscriber""s regular telephone line account. Referring now to FIG. 2, consider the example of two subscribers, namely, Subscriber A and Subscriber B, who both reside within a geographical region served by area code xe2x80x9c404xe2x80x9d for which exchange code xe2x80x9c203xe2x80x9d has been reserved. Subscriber A has a unique telephone number of xe2x80x9c404-777-1000xe2x80x9d connected to a first service switching point (SSP) 11, and Subscriber B has a unique telephone number of xe2x80x9c404-888-2000xe2x80x9d connected to a second service switching point 21. Both subscribers have an outbound-only telephone line with the common global telephone number of xe2x80x9c404-203-1111.xe2x80x9d When Subscriber A attempts to use her outbound-only telephone line 30 for the first time, service switching point 11 sends a query 37 to a service control point (SCP) 14a through service transfer point (STP) 15. Query 37 contains the global telephone number xe2x80x9c404-203-1111xe2x80x9d and the originating point code, e.g., xe2x80x9c252-112-001,xe2x80x9d of service switching point 11. Similarly, when Subscriber B attempts to use his outbound-only telephone line 40 for the first time, service switching point 21 sends a query 47 to service control point 14 containing the originating point code of the second service switching point 21, e.g., xe2x80x9c100-211-252,xe2x80x9d and the xe2x80x9c404-203-1111xe2x80x9d global telephone number.
After receiving either of these two queries, service control point 14a instructs the appropriate service switching point to ask its subscriber for his or her unique telephone number for billing purposes. For example, if the query comes from Subscriber A, service control point 14a would send an instruction 38 to service switching point 11 and Subscriber A would key in her unique telephone number xe2x80x9c404-777-1000.xe2x80x9d Following Subscriber A""s authorization, any subsequent calls made by Subscriber A using her outbound-only telephone line 30 would cause service control point 14a to charge those calls against Subscriber A""s unique telephone number xe2x80x9c404-777-1000.xe2x80x9d Similarly, following the initial setup, all calls originating from Subscriber B""s outbound-only telephone line 40 would be billed against Subscriber B""s unique telephone number xe2x80x9c404-888-2000.xe2x80x9d
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a telecommunication method and system where a single telephone number can be used to service as many outbound-only telephone lines as there are service switching points within a common area code region.
It is a further object of the present invention to utilize existing reserved exchange codes to serve thousands of outbound-only telephone lines and thereby eliminate the need for telephone companies to put new area codes into service.
It is a still further object of the present invention to allow telephone companies to offer substantially lower rates for subscribers of outbound-only telephone lines.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a telecommunication system where the need for complex operation overhead can be reduced.